Free fishing June 9

Friday, June 1, 2001 at 1:00am

Free Fishing Day is Saturday, June 9, and numerous events are scheduled across the state for every resident of Tennessee.

Free Fishing Day is now a Tennessee tradition and all you angling adults are urged to take kids fishing. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency wants everyone to take advantage of Free Fishing Day and wet a line on one of Tennessee's many lakes, streams and rivers.

All public lakes, state park lakes, and lakes owned by the TWRA are open to anglers June 9, and fishermen do not need licenses or permits to enjoy a day of angling.

Numerous Free Fishing Day events will be held across the state. Local newspapers often print articles about upcoming events, but TWRA regional offices can also be contacted for more information. Telephone numbers for those offices are listed in TWRA fishing brochures.

Here's a list of scheduled events for Free Fishing Day:

At Cheatham Dam (a small embayment near the dam), Pro Endeavors, 7 a.m.-noon, ages 12 and under, prizes awarded for fishing contest results. Sponsored by TWRA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Grab bags included.

Maury County, at Williamsport Lakes and Wildlife Management Area, Kids Lake, time 7 a.m.-noon, ages 16 and under, with door prizes, screened t-shirts. Sponsored by Columbia Rotary Club and TWRA.

Trousdale/Smith County Line, Hartsville Nuclear Plant (4 miles east of Hartsville), locations at two large embayments. Sponsored by TVA and TWRA.

Montgomery County Fairgrounds pond off Highway 13 and 48, 9 a.m.-noon (arrive a little early if possible), ages 16 and under, fishing contest with prizes. Sponsored by TWRA and the City of Clarksville.

Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency personnel have counted thousands of kill tags and are still tabulating across much of the state, but if results from the 2001 spring turkey-hunting season in Middle Tennessee are a reflection of tags yet to come, the state will once again set a record turkey harvest.

Most tags have been accounted for in the mid-state and even though a few more tags will likely trickle in, Middle Tennessee hunters have already bagged 12,193 birds this spring, or 702 more bearded turkeys than they took in the spring of 2000.

Here's how the turkey-hunting count is going in Middle Tennessee counties:

Numbers in parenthesis reflect the 2000 harvest, while the number outside the parenthesis indicates the harvest from this spring.